Revealed: DWP still allowing unpaid carers to run up debts despite being told about overpayments

Chris Farrell was given benefit for six months despite his repeated requests for payments to stop

A former unpaid carer has urged welfare officials to “get their act together” after they continued to pay him carer’s benefit for six months after the death of his husband, potentially landing him with debts of more than £1,300.

Chris Farrell, 65, who claimed carer’s allowance for four years while providing full-time care for his late husband repeatedly tried to get the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to stop paying him the £86.45 a week benefit.

Farrell said his anxiety over the growing benefit payments in his bank account – and uncertainty over whether he would be punished despite following the rules – had left him distressed and unable to move on with his life.

The DWP said on Friday it would write off Farrell’s overpayment – meaning he does not have to pay back the carer’s allowance income paid to him as a result of official error – after the Guardian approached officials with details of his case.

The Guardian is aware of five other cases where carers said they were unable to stop carer benefit payments despite informing the DWP that they were no longer caring and neither wanted nor were eligible for the benefit.

A carer served an overpayment demand – a request to return benefit income wrongly paid as a result of what officials deem is carer error – would have to repay it along with a £50 civil penalty fine. In extreme cases they would be at risk of fraud charges.

“The death of my husband was a hard enough blow to deal with. This was made so much worse by having to repeatedly tell DWP to stop paying the allowance – it was a constant reminder of my life ‘stopping’ for four years while I was a full-time unpaid carer for him,” said Farrell, who said he would donate the money to a food bank.